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Integrating with DevTools

The Chrome DevTools are built to be extensible. So if the DevTools are missing a feature you need, you may be able to find an existing extension, or write one yourself. Or you can integrate DevTools capabilities into your application.

There are two basic ways to build a custom solution using the DevTools:

DevTools Extension. A Chrome extension that plugs into the DevTools to add functionality and extend its UI.

Debugging Protocol Client. A third-party application that uses the Chrome remote debugging protocol to plug into the low-level debugging support in Chrome.

The following sections discuss both approaches.

DevTools Chrome extensions

The DevTools UI is a web application embedded inside Chrome. DevTools extensions use the Chrome extensions system to add features to the DevTools. A DevTools extension can add new panels to the DevTools, add new panes to the Elements and Sources panel sidebar, examine the resources and network events, as well as evaluate JavaScript expressions in the browser tab that's being inspected.

For a list of sample DevTools extensions, see Sample DevTools Extensions. These samples include many open source extensions that can be used for reference.

Debugging protocol clients

Third-party applications, such as IDEs, editors, continuous integration harnesses, and test frameworks can integrate with the Chrome debugger in order to debug code, live-preview code and CSS changes, and control the browser. Clients use the Chrome debugging protocol to interact with an instance of Chrome, which can be running on the same system or remotely.

Note: Currently, the Chrome debugging protocol supports only one client per page. So you can use the DevTools to inspect a page, or use a third-party client, but not both at the same time.

There are two ways to integrate with the debugging protocol:

Applications that run in Chrome (such as web-based IDEs) can create a Chrome extension using the debugger module, chrome.debugger. This module lets the extension interact with the debugger directly, bypassing the DevTools UI. See Using the debugger extension API for more information.

Other applications can use the wire protocol to integrate directly with the debugger. This protocol involves exchanging JSON messages over a WebSocket connection.